Yes, I really was mad enough to go running in the rain. Well, you can’t restrict your training to just the fair weather days, you have no idea what conditions might be like once you come to the actual race. And by now I was in actual training, for the 10km ‘Round the Bays’ race held in Auckland each year. I’ll write more about that on the day itself.

With hindsight, though, I can see the influence of Mr D’Almeida already. In England, I was a religious trainer for events – I did it once a week for as short a time as possible. Now, I was out running in a downpour, because that was what I needed to do.